NEW YORK — Some 20 years ago, during All-Star Weekend in 1995, Grant Hill sat in the back of a crowded meeting. He looked around, taking in the moment. In the room were future Hall of Famers and players he grew up emulating.
For Hill, a rookie whose NBA career had started only four months beforehand, this was surreal — there was his Pistons teammate, Joe Dumars, Bulls star Scottie Pippen was nearby, and Knicks big man Patrick Ewing and Suns stalwart Charles Barkley and so on.
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Something clicked for Hill in that moment. While he might have been amazed by the collection of talent, Hill was brimming with confidence. He wasn't intimidated; he was motivated. Hill remains one of only four rookies to make the All-Star team in the last 20 years, the others being Tim Duncan, Yao Ming and Blake Griffin.
The first All-Star appearance was the start of an incredible run that led Hill down a 19-year journey — one filled with highlights on the basketball court and lowlights on the trainer's table. Now working in broadcast and promoting the Allstate NABC Good Works Team ahead of the 2015 All-Star Game, the seven-time All-Star reflected back on that process.
"When I think of All-Star Weekend as a player, I think of my first and I think of my last," Hill said. "And they were important and significant for different reasons, but that first one was just like, 'Wow, I've arrived.' I'm on this stage, I'm playing with guys I was just watching a year, two years ago and now I'm here with them. It was one of those experiences you didn't want to end."
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Hill's arrival didn't end in the meeting room, however. There was still a basketball game to be played. The lights came on and Hill proved he was no regular rookie. He used the same smooth approach that made him the leading vote-getter to solidify his place among the league's stars in a game filled with them.
When the game was over, Hill had posted 10 points, five rebounds and three assists. But the numbers weren't the most significant thing Hill gained on that day. He walked away with a level of excitement and passion that helped propel him to an elite level.
"I don't know if it was a confidence thing," Hill said. "It was probably more about being so fired up and so jacked up that I was just riding that momentum the rest of the season. It was surreal. And then to go out there and play and have some moments. The little kid in me was in disbelief."
In fact, Hill believes that moment had a profound effect on his play in the Pistons' next regular season game against the Knicks two days later, on Feb. 14, 1995.
As Hill remembers it, he was still on a high from All-Star Weekend and hit 11 consecutive shots in a 106-94 win over the Knicks. Hill didn't know if he missed a shot in the game, but the box score tells us he finished the game with 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting.
Comb through the numbers and it shows that Hill might have a point. Hill averaged 19.9 points per game in the 1994-1995 season, including an average of 17.9 in the month of February. That rose to 21.9 points per game in March and eventually spiked at 23.8 in April.
Now, the Pistons were struggling at the time and only won three games in April of 1995, but it was clear their future was bright. They had Grant Hill.
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Performances like this were the norm for Hill, even as a rookie. Maybe Hill was just being humble, but 1.2 million people voted him into the All-Star Game. There had to be some impetus for that.
To provide clarity, Sporting News talked with one of Hill's peers, former Magic great Anfernee Hardaway.
"Grant came in as a rookie and seemed like a veteran," Hardaway said. "He was already seasoned for the moment when he came in, and he showed that by winning Co-Rookie of the Year, playing in his first All-Star Game in his first year, doing some great things. He was just highly skilled. I had been playing with Grant since high school so I knew that when he came on this level that he would be able to open his game up and show the world what he was about."
Hill went on to win Co-Rookie of the Year that season, sharing the award with then Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd. The Bucks' Glenn Robinson finished a close third.
"I wasn't super close with Big Dog," Hill said. "We were sort of rivals in the same conference, sort of played the same position. But Jason Kidd, we kind of got to know each other that season. And our games were similar, we could score but we could also assist, triple-double, all that kind of stuff. So he was the guy I kind of watched to see what the guys were doing. And all of us kind of inspired each other, 'What did Jason do, what did Glenn do.' "
Perhaps the most revealing element of the above quote is how Hill casually sprinkles in the fact that he posted a triple-double as a rookie. Maybe it came out that way because Hill flirted with a triple-double almost every night.
While Hill completed only one triple-double in his first year, there were more near triple-doubles that season — and beyond — than anyone would care to count. Hill still rates ninth all-time in triple-doubles with 29.
Hill was at his best in his final season with the Pistons. He averaged 25.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 rebounds in 74 games. Then Hill, who had always done the right thing on the court, watched things shift for him as injury took away his prime years, forever linking Hill with the phrase what-if.
Here at All-Star Weekend, Hawks Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins said what enters the mind of almost every basketball fan when the name Grant Hill is mentioned.
"He was great," Wilkins told Sporting News. "The kid could play. I said when he came in the league, 'This kid is going to be something.' And just think if he hadn't had the injuries he had. He really would've been something."
The questions about what Hill could have become are everywhere, yet the moment when those questions began can all be traced back to 2000, when Hill played through an ankle injury in the Pistons' first-round playoff series against the Heat.
He never fully recovered, his injuries snowballing to the point he only played 47 games over the next three seasons with his new team, the Magic. Hill had gone there to star in a tandem with Tracy McGrady. The pairing never had a chance to fully form.
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Hill did manage to recover enough to play 67 games in the 2004-05 season and make his final return to the All-Star Game. He cherished the moment because of what it signified. He had overcome a battle that nearly ended his basketball career and, more importantly, his life.
"Well, I had suffered a number of injuries, had been out," Hill said. "Really for four years I was struggling with an ankle, had five surgeries during that time, ended up with a nasty staph infection that almost killed me, sat out for a good portion for a full season to overcome that and get back to that level, the All-Star level. It was just a feeling of great accomplishment.
"There were times during my injuries that I wasn't sure if I could play again, get healthy and be able to be on that level as an All-Star. That was important for a whole different set of reasons. It was important just to know that I had been able to fight through and overcome."
With the luxury of hindsight, Hill can now take pride in one of the toughest times in his life. He can look back knowing he did all he could to maintain his basketball career and improve his health. And it paid off when he extended his career to 19 years, with an impressive five-year stop with the Suns. He played his final season as a member of the Clippers.
"I break my career into three sections," Hill said. "There's the early part, All-Star games, at one point being considered a Top 10, Top 5 player in the league, commercials, endorsements, everything. And then there was that point in Orlando where I wasn't even sure if I was going to walk again, or play, or get back and stay healthy. That was sort of a dark time. And sort of the end, where I kind of reinvent myself and you appreciate it more when you get a second chance, or in my case, that fifth chance. Each period is different.
"The thing I'm most proud of is the whole ankle thing, getting through that. I know how hard it was sort of not quitting, not giving up and just keep fighting. So that to me, that whole experience, as bad as it was, as disappointing as it was, is the thing I guess I'm the most proud of. I'm really proud that I didn't go insane during the process."
That leads us back to 2015 All-Star Weekend, where Hill is working as a broadcaster and bumping elbows with All-Stars on the floors of Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden. Twenty years have passed since Hill first showed up at the event as a participant, and he's still in disbelief when he discusses that experience.
"In some respects it doesn't seem that long ago," Hill said, "and on the other hand, it seems like it was another lifetime ago. But 20 years, it was a great high moment for me. It was one of those you can really truly learn to appreciate once you feel removed from it and have time to reflect. You're grateful for the opportunity and that moment."